The PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE covers the core curriculum of Permaculture design, offering you the tools to create ecological, social and economic systems that effectively provide for your needs while regenerating the landscapes around you for the benefit of future generations.

Our teaching team consistently receives praise from students for being knowledgeable, caring, and using a diversity of teaching methods. We strive to balance theoretical learning with practical sessions, some located in parts of the farm where examples of what’s being taught are present on the landscape. We also focus on building practical skills for collaborative and resilient design, exploring innovative methods and tools. Our goal is to offer full learning cycles, allowing students to experience and fully integrate the curriculum.

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

DESIGN: Practice techniques for observation and surveying; learn to read and make maps, select and use tools for site analysis and assessment; integrate ethics, principles, and climate-specific strategies to create innovative design solutions, and experience several iterations of group design processes.

CLIMATE AND LANDFORM: Adapt design strategies to climate patterns; observe, enhance, and create microclimates; adapt design to slope, elevation, orientation, and local weather patterns.
WATER: Understand the natural water cycle and effects of human interventions. Use earthworks to harvest the rain, recharge depleted groundwater, and prevent erosion. Learn to use & reuse water responsibly, including greywater solutions, constructed wetlands, and aquaculture.

SOIL: Understand the living and non-living aspects of soil, and how appropriate human management can maximize productivity and health of soils. Know strategies and practice techniques that build fertility and resilience of soil in different climates and at different scales of use.

LIVING LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT: Understand basics of ecology: succession, nutrient cycling and energy flows, behavior of complex systems. Select appropriate solutions for intensive and extensive landscapes; Understand benefits of multi-yield systems at different scales, including diversified gardens, agroforestry, agrosilvopastoral landscapes, and managed woodlands.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC APPLICATIONS: Understand appropriate technologies and techniques for sustainable human settlements & society, including: natural building, energy-efficient house design, community & decision-making strategies, transition towns, ethical livelihood creation & microbusiness, solidarity/social economy, local/alternative currencies.